On the 2nd of April when spring was in full swing, the Jin-Reinhardt group left Yada Village, and spent a night in the town of Coorz.
The next day they continued east without returning to the main road, finally arriving in the provincial city of Ikasanaato on the border of Celuroa Kingdom.
People who wanted to go from Egelia Kingdom to Celuroa Kingdom, or vice versa, went through here, and this immigration control was picky.
This was because the other party was Celuroa Kingdom; the border of Elias Kingdom wasnât controlled as strictly as this.
âIt may take up to three days.â
âWell, it may be good to rest our bodies.â
Moving on a carriage in itself was tiring. Without having breaks every few days, oneâs body couldnât endure it.
And so, Jin decided to take this opportunity to repair the Automata Ann that was found in the ancient ruins of Keuwan.
On the night of the day they arrived in Ikasanaato, Jin had Ann deactivate temporarily, and with Reiko carrying her they warped to Hourai Island.
He was thinking he might tell the truth already if Reinhardt asked where he repaired her.
âWelcome home, My Lord. Oh my, who is this lady?â
In the research laboratory Laozi greeted him. Then, he saw the Automata Reiko had carried in and raised his voice in curiosity.
âAh, this is an Automata I found in the ruins of something called Keuwan, her name is Ann. She was pretty hurt so I thought Iâd repair her. Please make the preparations.â
âAs you wish.â
And then because of Jin, Annâs repairs begun.
The first thing to do was to mend the Control Core. Jin transferred all the information Ann had to the prepared all-attribute Magi Crystals.
â[Transfer Info].â
By [Transfer Info] Jin made an exact copy. It was an especially close call, as after copying, the original Control Core broke into four pieces.
âWoah, just in time. If itâs like this then I think thereâs the possibility that some of the information contains bugs.â
That was Jinâs analysis.
âIf youâve got a minute, Laozi, transfer the minimum information about Hourai Island to her, please. At the same time, also copy the information Ann has.â
âUnderstood.â
In this way, Laozi happened to gain information of things during the Great Magic War. They decided to simultaneously give Ann the minimum information for working under Jin from now on.
âMy Lord, around 20 percent of the information is incomplete.â
Laozi reported after copying Annâs information. It was as Jin had expected.
âIs that right, I thought so. Please restore as much of it as possible. Itâs fine even if it takes a while.â
âI understand.â
Leaving the matters of the information to Laozi, Jinn continued Annâs repairs.
âNext letâs think the reproduction process and upgrading the materials through.â
From a steel skeleton to a Light Silver one, from the tattered muscle tissue to the same Magical Fibers Reiko used. The skin was prepared out of a Sham Dragonâs wing membrane.
And, after going this far, Jin noticed a material he had never seen before on a shelf.
âReiko, whatâs this?â
âYes, it is something harvested from a Sea Dragon.â
âOh, the thing I heard from earlier. I see⌠I can use this.â
To bring Annâs repairs to an end for now, Jin resumed the repairs.
Eyes from sapphire crystals. An Ether Converter, a Mana Driver, and shielding. He installed a Mana Tank, and made the hair out of Ground Spider&
rsquo;s silk dyed blue.
After finishing installing the muscle tissue, next was to be the coating, howeever.
âMaking her exactly the same as before is a littleâŚâ
Jin was troubled. To tell you the truth, there was something Ann had had installed that Reiko hadnât.
âI wonder if she was also used for âthat sort of thingââŚâ
During the war, within the troops that had had no female presence there had been female-type Automata. The reason can be easily guessed.
âI better not, after all.â
Jin couldnât see any of his Automata that way. To the very end they were his daughters, and he loved them and that being the case he didnât think of them as sexual objects.
Finally, the clothes. He had her wear the same clothes as the five-colored golem maids. The color was black and there was no maid headdress.
âAlright, itâs complete. [Activate].â
âYes, master.â
Ann got up.
âHow is it, the state of your body?â
The activated Ann walked around and raised and lowered her hands to check her motions.
âIt is very good. Thank you very much.â
âAlright, stay there on standby. Next, Reiko, come here.â
âYes, Father.â
Jin called out to Reiko.
âAlright, Reiko, earlier you had a hard fight with Gigantes, right? Iâll check your whole body, but how about after that I strengthen you so that something like that wonât happen again?â
âYes, I couldnât ask for more. Please do.â
She shot back with a reply immediately. Jin nodded and,
âAlright, got it.â
First Jin had Reiko deactivate, and checked all the parts. And then.
âThis isâŚâ
Jin frowned. The reason was that a few places had been damaged.
The skeleton of the right foot looked a little deformed, and the Magical Muscles on both arms too looked to have snapped apart a bit.
There were no abnormalities in the chest cavity, but both the Ether Converter and Mana Driver had deteriorated a bit.
As expected running at 200 percent output appeared to have worked them too hard.
âThis needs a complete reinforcement, huh. That and I need to give a warning to Reiko.â
Jin muttered and started working on Reikoâs improvements.
First was revising the whole body. He included things he had realized while inspecting Annâs structure.
An Adamantite skeleton. Hollow, with the core having a spongelike structure. With this both lightness and strength could coexist.
For the muscles he used a composite of the fibers of a Sea Dragonâs leather and the existing Magical Fibers.
By just rotating Magic Energy through Sea Dragonâs leather it wouldnât deteriorate, and on top of that its high-power output was three times that of Magical Fibers. But controlling it was somewhat difficult, so he made it into a composite material.
For the skin he used a Sea Dragonâs wing membrane. It seemed to be twice as robust as a Sham Dragonâs membrane.
The result of using these materials was that somehow Reikoâs weight lightened by 15 percent. Dragon-type materials should be feared.
âHm, itâs as I hoped. Like this the output can be increased.â
Jin said, and added a second Ether Converter and a Mana Driver to Reiko. In other words, she could double her output.
âEven with this, against Gigantes Iâd be little unsure.â
Jin then started working on the final points of improvement he had thought about after that fight.
That was boosting the output.
It would be different if he had Elradrite, but to work without it Jin thought of something called a âcapacitorâ.
Jin wasnât very well-versed in electronic circuitry, but he was aware that a capacfitor was something that temporarily stored electric power.
In other words, normally unused output was temporarily stored and released as necessary, that was the theory.
For that purpose, he planned to install an ultra high performance version of a Mana Tank to Reiko. It would surely be useful when going south to where there was little Ether too.
Theoretically, it could be expected to have a momentary output of 1000 percent. He couldnât think of a use for it though.
âThis thing will take all the weight I reduced earlier, though.â
After finishing up, Reikoâs weight became precisely 30 kilograms. The reform took back the weight gained in the previous remodeling.
âAlright, Reiko, [Activate].â
Jin told the details of the improvements to Reiko who stood up.
âUnderstood. From now on, Iâll limit myself to 3 percent output in normal use.â
âMh-hm. So, howâre you feeling?â
âVery light. Thank you very much.â
âAlright, in that case Iâve got something to say to you. Sit down ofer there.â
âYes?â
Jin had Reiko sit down. After thinking he then scolded her.
âReiko, Iâm happy that you fight for my sake. However, just taking the brute force approach is irresponsible so stop it. Okay?â
âEh? The purpose behind Father repeatedly enhancing me, was it not so that I could use that force?â
âWhat theâŚâ
Jin was greatly perplexed and silenced. It appeared that the enhancements he had given to Reiko in good faith had just made her more devoted to strength.
âThatâs wrong. I only enhanced you because I didnât want you to be broken even in the worst case scenario. Put more thought into fighting from now on.â
âYes, I understand.â
Then Jin, Reiko, and Ann were about to return, when Laozi called out to Jin.
âMy Lord, I have a proposal to make.â
âHm? Thatâs unusual. What is it?â
âYes. Now that the amount of subordinates My Lord has has increased, thereâs a possibility that by some accident or such they fall into someone elseâs hands.â
What Laozi said was reasonable. When Jin heard that something popped into his mind, but he first motioned Laozi to continue.
âAnd so, I propose that just in case, we install a function for information erasure.â
âI see.â
What Jin had thought of in the spur of the moment was a self-destruct mechanism, but this was a much gentler idea than that. In the first place, even though it was Jinâs idea, he didnât want to install something like a self-destruct mechanism to the golems that could be said to be his children.
Even the safety measure installed in Laozi was a destruction device only Jin could activate, so it wasnât a self-destruct mechanism.
Those golems of Jin that did not use rare materials couldnât possibly bring out the same performance as those that did. Currently just imitating Lotte was difficult.
On the other hand, concealing as much information about Hourai Island as possible was necessary.
âAlright, with Laozi as the guide enact that plan.â
âUnderstood.â
And like that, after this Laozi would add security measures to each one of the subordinate golems.
This time Jin returned to Ikasaato. He had stayed quite a while in Hourai Island, and when so he dozed off for a bit, or at least thought so, morning had come.
âGood morning.â
While rubbing his sleepy eyes Jin went to the dining room for breakfast.
âGood morning, Jin.â
Reinhardt gave morning greetings to Jin, then looked at his face and,
âDid you not sleep well? Your eyes are red.â
He said. Jin nodded, and replied that he missed sleep while thinking about various things.
âGood morning, Jin-kun.â
âGood morning.â
Elsa also greeted him.
The three went to eat.
âWhat are todayâs plans?â
Jin asked Reinhardt.
âWeâll go handle the formalities. I can handle that alone, so Jin and Elsa, you two can do as you like.â
At that moment, the door of the dining room opened, and a military-ish man came in.
That man looked around restlessly, but finally walked towards Jinâs group. Then,
âElsa, itâs been a while!â
No sooner had he said that than he hugged Elsa who had just finished her meal.
âBrother!?â
Elsa was surprised.
âYeah, thatâs right. Has it been two years? Youâve become prettier, Elsa. But best of all you look healthy.â\n